Project Origins
It began with a letter. In spring 2022, as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, British artist-jeweller Phoebe Walsh, deeply moved by the unfolding events, reached out to Kyiv-based artist Olga Morozova. She asked her to collect flowers in a city bracing for siege, sirens echoing overhead. The ground was still frozen; almost nothing had yet begun to bloom. But the idea took root – and with it, hope.
Those first collected plants became the heart of tiny silver books – symbols of memory, silence, and tenderness. Each flower holds a moment of trust, connection, and compassion. These were the first artifacts of Flowers from the Frontline – from heart to heart, across war, across time, across space.
From that initial gesture, an interdisciplinary project began to blossom – an exhibition about what grows despite destruction. At its core is the collaborative work of British and Ukrainian artists and researchers – Phoebe Walsh, Olga Morozova, Philip Norman, and Carmela Corbett – a dialogue between past and present, frontline and home front, personal memory and shared history.
The Project’s International Journey
Flowers from the Frontline has been exhibited at the Garden Museum in London (2022), at Palo Gallery in New York, and at Bedales Memorial Library in the UK (2023–2024).
Its Ukrainian debut is part of the Bouquet Kyiv Stage Art Festival 2025.